ENVIRONMENTAL charity Friends of the Earth (FoE) has revealed new research which shows increased recycling across the Heads of the Valleys could provide more than 3,000 new “green jobs”.

FoE claim that there is the potential for a huge economic boost and far more jobs across five local authorities in the South Wales Valleys, including Caerphilly County Borough, if communities make changes to their waste-disposal methods.

The research claimed that the next 10-15 years could see at the very least 782 new jobs created in the recycling and home energy efficiency industries in Caerphilly borough – increasing to upwards of 906 according to higher estimates.

Politicians and local campaigners joined the charity for the talk at the Engine House in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, on Monday, where FoE campaigner Jules Kirby kicked off the event by highlighting that £650m worth of potentially recyclable materials are buried or burned every year.

The research, which was carried out last month, shows job projections based on increased household and industrial recycling, as well as more homes using local companies to install energy efficiency measures like home insulation or solar panels.

“As well as saving valuable resources, this would create thousands of jobs locally and considerably strengthen the economy.

“But building massive new incinerators will undermine our efforts to increase recycling.

“As recycling creates 10 times as many jobs as incineration, this report shows that, with the right political support, the Heads of the Valleys could have a green, successful and thriving future.”

In practice, the proposal would mean more social enterprises and business start-ups in each area to deal with the increased levels of recycling and the higher demand for home energy efficiency measures.

Mr Kirby said: “The entire scheme would pay for itself. We pay for our waste to be retrieved anyway, so to pay for it to be recycled rather than landfilled or incinerated means that it will be able to be sold on at each stage, from the recovery centre to the re-processors and back to the shops. It will make more money in the long term, as well as creating more jobs.”

The findings go against proposals to build a waste incinerator between Rhymney and Merthyr Tydfil, which would be big enough to dispose of all of Wales’ waste as well as creating around 650 jobs during construction and around 100 full-time jobs afterwards.

But FoE claim the incinerator would be bad news for the towns.

Mike Birkin, who compiled the current research, said: “Incinerators are generally unwelcome neighbours on account of the traffic, pollution and ash they generate.

“We believe that Merthyr deserves better and can do better. This is why we chose to look more closely into the potential of the area to support a different approach to waste processing, one that would conserve resources instead of destroying them.”

South Wales Central AM Leanne Wood, who is also Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson on sustainability, said the report seemed to “tick all the boxes”, adding: “The Assembly has the potential to help here by setting the 70% environmental targets.”

Ms Wood gave her full support to those opposing the incinerator. She said: “You do have to have alternative processes. I would like to see small local companies processing this waste.

“Too often we are accused as environmental campaigners of being against things. We do have to put forward an alternative, and this is where this (proposal) is such a welcome development.”